Seneca East's young but talented boys cross country squad hits a soggy course Saturday at the Division III state cross country meet, looking for history.

"They have the chance to bring home the boys first state team title, not just in cross country, but in any [boys] sport in school history," coach Doug Mason said. "They saw they had the potential to do this and have been working since last winter.?It has a special meaning, no doubt about it."

If it happens, it's been a long time coming.

Seneca East's only team title in school history came when the girls captured the 1998 Division III cross country crown.

The boys came close, taking second in 1994, '95, '96 and '97, with Vincent Fries claiming the individual championship in three of those meets.

But that latest ever-so-close finish came when this year's only senior - Karl Burgderfer - was merely toddling around, learning how to get from Point A to Point B without stumbling, while the sophomores - twins Wes and Carson Pipher, along with Jared Stockmaster, Michael Szabo and Bryce Watson - were merely newborns.

But what they lack in age, they make up for in talent.

Last year's group, led by then sophomore Jason Willman's 13th, and a trio of freshmen, captured fifth.

Willman later suffered a stress fracture in track and went all summer and a good portion of this fall without training.

Seneca East's response? Storming through nearly every cross country race, with different Tigers stepping up.

A lynchpin for that success came from Burgderfer, Mason said.

In just his second year of cross country, the senior improved from cracking the team's top seven to cementing his spot as a scorer for the Tigers.

"He knew we had a chance to run for a state title and he really put in the summer work and made himself better and helped make our team better, and helped put us in a position to win state," Mason said. "He's been a great senior.?He often gets overlooked because of the sophomore class and Jason Willman, but he's going to play a big role in how this all plays out.

"He's one of the main reasons we were able to win some of those meets early in the season when we didn't have Jason," he said. "Karl Burgderfer, he's invaluable as a fifth runner. "In team scoring, his place is going to be vital. He's a strong fifth runner, one of the best fifth runners of any team there."

Meanwhile, Willman's return shortly before the league meet solidified what had by then become a dominating group; it won the Midland Athletic League meet with a league-record 18 points, before scoring 17 points for the district title and taking the regional crown by a 50-79 margin over sixth-ranked Minster.

Mason said the key was an aggressive approach of going out with the elite runners as long as possible, something he pushed on the Tigers while Willman recuperated.

He said some of the Tigers didn't like it at first, but the complaints went away as the wins piled up and the times went down.

"We knew we'd probably win those [early] races even if they didn't keep up with the other runners for the whole way. But in order for us to knock off [perennial powers] McDonald and Maplewood [at state], we needed to develop that pace, and it's paid off," Mason said. "Jason knew how to do that because he did that last year, but for the Pipher twins and the other sophomores and Burgderfer, we just said 'try it.'"

And that won't be an easy task.

Each of top-10 ranked teams, and 11 out of the top 13, qualified for state.

And, as with No. 3 Seneca East, they're deep with talent. They showed that at the regional meet.

The top four teams and top 16 runners at each regional qualified for state, meaning there was the potential of up to 64 individuals - those who didn't make it as a member of a state-qualifying team - to earn the right to run one more week.

But just 32 non-team runners made the cut statewide, with state team runners gobbling up many of those precious top 16 spots.

At the regional in Tiffin, where Seneca East ran, 10 of the top 16 runners competed for teams which earned state berths. Four of those runners were Tigers - Wes Pipher third, Carson Pipher ninth, Stockmaster 12th and Willman 13th.